I like pears, and it certainly seems to be a good time for them, judging by the store's produce section. However, I've never been a big fan of the texture of the flesh. Poached pears are more homogeneous, texture-wise, plus they are more soft and delicate.
Pears pair well with ginger, so the first question - cooking liquid - is easily answered: Real ginger ale. You know, the kind sometimes labeled ginger "beer." Though it is non-alcoholic, the stringency of it does justify the alternative nomenclature.
The second question is this: To peel, or not to peel? After poaching, I find the skin of the pear is tough and leathery, and quickly discolors unappealingly. On the plus-side, especially with red pears, the skin can impart its pigment to the outside layer of the poached pear, tinging it a gentle pink - almost like the smoke ring on low-slow barbequed meat. It's beautiful. However, in the end, I opt for skin off. If I do whole red pears, I might leave the skin on, since I could more easily remove it in one big go, but other than that - 3/8in. thick skinless slices are how I'll do it.
I pour about 3/8in. of ginger beer into the bottom of a skillet or wide-bottomed pan, and bring it up to a simmer. Then I add about a tablespoon of sugar. When that is dissolved, I lay the pear slices in and let them cook in a bare simmer for about 4 minutes. Then I turn them over and cook 2-3 minutes more. I want them to still be a bit firm when they come out of the poaching liquid, but obviously soft from cooking. In other words - don't cook them till they look poached. That's overcooked.
When I remove the pears, I put them in an ice-water bath to cease the cooking process, and prepare them for the fridge. This may remove some of the nice syrup from the outside, but they will be rejoined with much more of it later, so I figure it's okay.
For each additional batch, I add however much more ginger beer is needed to make the bath approximately the same depth as the slices. If many batches are cooked, a bit more sugar might be added later.
Finally, after all the slices are cooked, I leave the remaining liquid over med-low heat and watch as it reduces. As soon as it is slightly thickened (bubbles seem to shrink instead of pop, and when agitated, the whole pan become golden bubbly), I remove the syrup to an ice-cooled metal bowl for brief cooling. It should still be fluidy and pourable at this point. If you want actual pear syrup (like maple syrup), reduce it more and don't bother with the cooling - just put it straight into the syrup vessel. But what we are doing it making a light syrup for the pears to live in, so keep that in mind. Once it's cooled a bit, pour it over the pears and refridgerate. Have them with anything.
June 29, 2008
Poached Pears (Poached Anyfruit)
Gingerbread Pancakes (á la La Note)
Been working on pancake skills lately. Baking (and anything like it) are tough to practice, one of the side-effects being that you either have to throw out a lot of food or eat a lot of calories for one experiment. The guilt throws the scientific process way off.
I decided to try gingerbread pancakes, since I had bought some pears and did some poaching. La Note in Berkeley serves terrific gingerbread pancakes with poached pears. In additions, the poaching liquid can be reduced into a delicious pear-ginger syrup. For my base pancake recipe I used this one:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/GINGERBREAD-PANCAKES-108785
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup brewed coffee, cold or at room temperature
4 large eggs
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
I made a couple changes right out of the gate: 2 of the 3 cups of flour were whole wheat, not APF. I substituted 1 cup of real buttermilk for the coffee and water. Didn't have any coffee, plus buttermilk is delicious and almost certainly will be acidic enough to match the coffee. Finally, I used sunflower oil (my standard vegetable oil) in place of the butter.
I actually assembled the dry and wet ingredients the night before so that I could just mix and cook in the morning. I hope there is nothing wrong with leaving the eggs in buttermilk and lemon juice overnight.
When it came to mixing, I tried to adhere to standard practice of mixing as little as possible, but was foiled by the unexpected thickness of the batter. After a few mix-rounds I could see it was WAY to dry. I decided to bite the bullet and add milk until it looked right. Not sure how much I added, but it took more mixing than I would have liked to get it integrated. Then, once it had sit for a bit (volume increasing substantially from the gas formation) it was still a bit thick, so I added more milk and mixed again, which released quite a bit of gas. I was afraid what with the de-gassing and the over-mixing that I'd be screwed, but they were still quite cakey and soft.
There was one additional dynamic, and that was the thickness of the batter varied from top to bottom of the pitcher. In other words, the first pancakes were much thicker than the last. I like the variability, but it can be confusing when trying to get the consistency right at the outset. The only alternative would seem to be mix it before each pour, but I would think that would be a gluten no-no.
The amount of sugar in the batter means that these brown WAY faster than typical pancakes, so one has to be cautious. I turned down my griddle from 375º to 350º to even things out. All told, it seemed like 3 mins on side A, 2 mins on side B was about right.
Seems to me it is almost impossible to serve home pancakes hot off the griddle, unless you are literally doing them right off the griddle onto people's plates, server-style. When I do pancakes, I cook them all at once, choose the best eight or so for immediate serving, then freeze the rest right away. I want them to retain as much moisture in as possible. Then I put the chosen eight into the toaster over briefly before serving, just so the butter will melt.
Jacki and I were pretty happy with the end results. Next time I plan to make the following changes: (1) Reduce the sugar by at least half. (2) Double the spices. (3) Add the correct amount of liquid right from the start. Not sure how much milk I added. Could have easily been a cup. Will refer to other pancake recipes I like to figure out what the approximate flour/fluid ratio is.
June 27, 2008
June 15, 2008
Cherry Cheesecake
Bought a new springform pan for this one.
I used about half the recipe, but it still filled up the pan almost all the way.
Part 3 - Cherry Topping
Had Jacki pit about 2lbs of cherries. Put all the cherry flesh into a pot with sugar, water, and lemon juice. Boiled shortly, then removed flesh from sauce. Reduced sauce briefly, then mixed in 1Tb of arrowroot powder (that had been dissolved in water). Once thickened and cooled a bit, added flesh back in.
Topped cheesecake at time of slicing, keeping a bowl of sauce on the side.
June 08, 2008
Rice Pilaf
Never made rice pilaf before - not counting box-style quickie pilafs. Spoke to my buddy Justin about his recipe, and adopted it, making a few modifications.
3-4 Tb butter (possibly half-n-half with olive oil)
1/4 lb. spaghetti (this could be orzo - or any other pasta for that matter)
2 cups brown rice
1 small onion diced
1-2 cup diced jalapeno
1/4 cup chopped parsley
4 cups broth (I used vegetable broth)
salt & pepper liberally
Brown pasta in butter/oil, add veggie/greens, add rice, add broth, bring to a boil. Transfer mixture to Pyrex baking pan and cover with perforated foil. Cook in 375º oven for 20-40 minutes. Pyrex lets you see the water level or state of the rice. Serves a lot of people, but probably less than it looks like.
Corn Meal
Note to self: Bob's Red Mill Medium Grind Corm Meal is actually 2 cents less per ounce then the standard corn meal.